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<h1><a href="https://archiveofourown.org/works/26837242">Love Me, Don't Leave Me</a> by <a class='authorlink' href='https://archiveofourown.org/users/TheWeatherOutside/pseuds/TheWeatherOutside'>TheWeatherOutside</a></h1>

<table class="full">

<tr><td><b>Series:</b></td><td>Whumptober 2020 [2]</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Category:</b></td><td>Rooster Teeth/Achievement Hunter RPF</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Genre:</b></td><td>Alternate Universe, Angst, Civilian Gavin, Fake AH Crew, Fluff, Hurt/Comfort, Kidnapping, M/M, Torture, Violence, Whumptober, Whumptober 2020</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Language:</b></td><td>English</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Status:</b></td><td>Completed</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Published:</b></td><td>2020-10-05</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Updated:</b></td><td>2020-10-05</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Packaged:</b></td><td>2021-05-06 12:21:54</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Rating:</b></td><td>Teen And Up Audiences</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Warnings:</b></td><td>No Archive Warnings Apply</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Chapters:</b></td><td>1</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Words:</b></td><td>4,464</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Publisher:</b></td><td>archiveofourown.org</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Story URL:</b></td><td>https://archiveofourown.org/works/26837242</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Author URL:</b></td><td>https://archiveofourown.org/users/TheWeatherOutside/pseuds/TheWeatherOutside</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Summary:</b></td><td><div class="userstuff">
              <p>Michael loves Gavin, and he would do whatever it takes to keep him safe. But Michael also has enemies, who would take the ones that he loves to get revenge.</p>
            </div></td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Relationships:</b></td><td>Gavin Free/Michael Jones</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Series:</b></td><td>Whumptober 2020 [2]</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Series URL:</b></td><td>https://archiveofourown.org/series/1959214</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Kudos:</b></td><td>14</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Collections:</b></td><td>Whumptober 2020</td></tr>

</table>

<a name="section0001"><h2>Love Me, Don't Leave Me</h2></a>
<div class="story"><div class="fff_chapter_notes fff_head_notes"><b>Author's Note:</b><blockquote class="userstuff">
      <p>Whumptober prompts used: Kidnapped, Forced to their Knees, I’ve Got You, Paranoia, Nightmares, Water, &amp; Carry.</p><p>Edit: as of 01/02/21 this has been rewritten and a certain character has been replaced.</p>
    </blockquote></div><div class="userstuff module">
    
    <p>“Have a good day at work!” Gavin sent Michael out the door like he usually did, with a wave and a kiss on the cheek.</p><p>“I’ll see you this evening,” Michael replied like he also usually did, despite the fact that it wasn’t always true. With his line of work, it was hard to know how the day would go when he woke up every morning. Sometimes he would be so caught up with work that he didn’t make it home until morning, other times he would be gone for days on a mission.</p><p>It was a good job that Gavin understood what he did, even if he wasn’t involved in it, as it would take too much explaining and too many lies to hide the real reason why he didn’t know if he’d made it home that evening.</p><p>He just had to hope that he made it back to Gavin at all.</p><p>“Sure,” Gavin said sarcastically and rolled his eyes, but it was good-natured and he was smiling. Michael leant over to kiss the corner of that grin, and then he was heading out the door.</p><p> </p><p>Michael stuck to his word and he did come home that evening. There wasn’t much work that Geoff wanted him to do that day, so he even got to leave early. He decided to spend the extra time picking up dinner for the two of them, before he headed home.</p><p>When Michael stepped back into the apartment, it was dim and quiet. Michael reached over to flick the lights on for the living room and then put the food on kitchen counter.</p><p>“Gav?” He called out for his boyfriend, but he didn’t receive a reply.</p><p>He smiled softly to himself, knowing just where he would find him.</p><p>Michael knocked on the door to Gavin’s office, and wasn’t surprised when he still didn’t receive a reply. He opened the door and found Gavin sat at his desk, his eyes locked onto one of the monitors in front of him as he typed away quickly at the keyboard.</p><p>“Gav?” Michael said as he approached Gavin’s chair. Gavin didn’t slow in his work and didn’t even acknowledge that Michael was there.</p><p>“Gavin?” He tried again, this time stepping up to Gavin’s desk and leaning against it, so there was no way that Gavin couldn’t see him.</p><p>This time Gavin did stop in his typing. He sat up in his seat and his eyes slowly moved from the screen to Michael.</p><p>“Michael? Is it that time already?” Gavin blinked at him and then looked down at his watch.</p><p>“Yep. You have a lot of work to do?” Michael cast one eye to the screens in front of Gavin, but they were filled with so many codes and numbers that even Michael, who had a fairly good amount of knowledge in technology to understand some things, didn’t even know what it all meant.</p><p>“Yeah, but it’s mostly done.” Gavin yawned and rubbed his eyes, and then stretched his back. “This client just had a really tight deadline and I wanted to get as much of it done today as I could.”</p><p>“Well, I bought us food on the way home. You ready to finish up for the day and eat?”</p><p>Gavin’s eyes lit up at the thought of food.</p><p>“Sure! Let me just send off what I’ve done and shut this down.” He turned back to the screen and started to type again.</p><p>“Alright, just don’t get distracted again. If you’re not out in three minutes, I’m coming back to carry you out of here.”</p><p>Gavin replied with a hum, his eyes not leaving the screen. Michael laughed lightly and gave Gavin a kiss on the top of his head before he headed back to the kitchen.</p><p>Gavin appeared in the kitchen in less than three minutes, which meant that Michael didn’t have to go and fetch him. It’s not like it would have been the first time.</p><p>He was just in time for Michael to dish the food onto two plates and place them on opposite sides of the tiny kitchen table.</p><p>As Michael was sorting out the food, Gavin grabbed their drinks and put them next to the plates of food.</p><p>“Thank you,” Gavin said with a smile as he sat down across from Michael and started to tuck into his noodles.</p><p>“You did cook last night, so it seemed only right for me to cook tonight.” Michael laughed at the look that Gavin gave him, and he knew that Gavin wanted to throw a noodle at him if it didn’t waste good food, but instead he just laughed softly too. He turned back to his food and Michael joined him, and they didn’t stop until every morsel was gone.</p><p> </p><p>The two of them had been together for five years and had known each other for even more. Despite being a couple for so long, Michael had never brought Gavin up in front of the rest of the crew. None of them knew he existed. As far as they were concerned, Michael went home to an empty apartment every night, and that was just how Michael wanted it.</p><p>The less people who knew that he was with Gavin, the safer Gavin would be.</p><p>He wasn’t part of the criminal world like Michael was. He was just an ordinary civilian who did small tech jobs for people who paid him. Michael didn’t know why someone like him would end up in a place like Los Santos, but if he had never moved, then Michael never would have met him.</p><p>If it were up to Michael, he would have kept Gavin away from the criminal side of him with a ten-foot pole. But Gavin was smart and curious, and therefore it didn’t take him long to work out what Michael was.</p><p>Michael had expected him to leave him after that, but Gavin had stuck around and no matter how much Michael had told him that it wasn’t safe, Gavin would always tell him that he didn’t care.</p><p>That didn’t mean that he would allow Gavin to get involved in his line of work. Instead, he wanted Gavin as far and as hidden away from it as he could be. Michael had a lot of enemies, and he couldn’t imagine what said enemies would do to Gavin to get to Michael.</p><p>He had nightmares about it. So many times, he had woken up in the dead of night in a cold sweat, as horrors of Gavin hurt or dead swam through his mind.</p><p>They were different every night. Sometimes he was forced to watch as someone tortured Gavin over an excruciatingly long amount of time right in front of him, other times he would find Gavin too late and he would already be gone.</p><p>The one thing that was always the same was that it was Michael’s fault that he got hurt.</p><p>But every time he woke up, Gavin would still be next to him, sleeping soundly and unaware of the terrors plaguing Michael’s mind. Each time, Michael would wrap his arms around Gavin protectively and pull him into his chest.</p><p>He would stay awake for hours afterwards. Every sound kept him awake in case they were noises of someone breaking in and taking the only person that Michael loved away from him. He wouldn’t sleep until he had exhausted himself with worry, and even then he would only sleep for a short while before he woke up again. Then, the fear would turn into him being at work all day and worrying that something would happen to Gavin whilst he was gone.</p><p>There was never a moment that Michael wasn’t afraid, but he would not give up his life with Gavin for anything.</p><p> </p><p>It was their anniversary, and the two of them had decided to take the evening off and head out into the city. They had gone to dinner, Michael’s treat, but Gavin had protested and insisted that if Michael was paying for dinner then he would pay for dessert.</p><p>The two of them had ended up at small ice cream parlour and had shared a banana split, and then the evening ended with them taking a stroll along the boardwalk.</p><p>They walked hand in hand and reminisced about the last five years together. They didn’t stop until they reached the end of the pier, where they looked out across the sea and pretended that they were somewhere else, somewhere better.</p><p>Gavin was watching the water, where the sun had already set out on the horizon and all that could be seen were the lights of boats in the distance.</p><p>Michael was watching him. The way that the light of the pier cast shadows on his face, the way he smiled as he fiddled with their laced hands that sat on the railing in front of them. Michael didn’t think he could ever look away.</p><p>But then he felt eyes on them, and with a sickening feeling he felt like they were also being watched.</p><p>Michael’s eyes moved from Gavin to the rest of the pier around them, but amongst all the other couples and families who had also decided to spend their Friday night at the pier, he couldn’t find anyone out of the ordinary. No one was looking at them, but that still didn’t make Michael feel any better.</p><p>“Let’s head back.”</p><p>“What?” Gavin’s gaze left the water and turned to Michael at his words. “It’s our anniversary, don’t you want to spend time together?”</p><p>“I do.” Michael grabbed hold of Gavin’s free hand so that they were both held in his. “But I want to be with just you, alone. We can still celebrate there, maybe we can put on a movie or something.”</p><p>Gavin considered that for a moment, before he smiled and nodded.</p><p>“Sure.” Gavin pulled him away from the railing and they both headed back up the pier, still hand in hand. “But I get to pick the movie.”</p><p>Michael chuckled. “Deal.”</p><p> </p><p>It was another night, weeks later, where Michael woke up abruptly in the early hours of the morning.</p><p>He didn’t know what had woken him up. He would have assumed that it was another nightmare, but he couldn’t remember having one and they always lingered in his head as soon as he woke up from them.</p><p>He realised what it was when he heard a bang come from the hallway outside their apartment a second later.</p><p>Michael quickly kicked the sheets off and clambered out of bed. He went straight to his nightstand, where he always kept a pistol right next to his bed.</p><p>In his haste, he had woken Gavin up. In the glow from the streetlight outside their bedroom window, Michael could see Gavin sit up and blearily look up at him.</p><p>“Michael? What’s happening?” Gavin tiredly asked, which was immediately followed by another loud bang that seemed to have come right from their front door.</p><p>“I need you to stay here, alright?” Michael leant over on the bed and grasped his hand. “I’m going to go and see what’s going on.”</p><p>Michael moved to pull away, but Gavin wouldn’t let go of his hand.</p><p>“Michael…” His eyes were filled with worry and he flinched at the next bang. It sounded as if the front door was about to cave in.</p><p>“Don’t worry. I’ll keep you safe.” Michael gave him a kiss and Gavin finally let him go. Michael didn’t want to leave him on his own, but he needed to go and take care of the problem and with Gavin in here, he was safer from getting hurt.</p><p>Michael quickly stepped out of the bedroom, shutting the door behind him, and made his way down the hallway and into the living room.</p><p>On his way, he checked the ammo in his gun and was pleased to find that it was full. He always made sure he kept it ready, just in case.</p><p>When he got to the living room, there was another bang from outside the front door. He lifted his gun to it as he approached, but he couldn’t fire it fast enough before the door flew off its hinges and someone came barrelling towards him.</p><p>The man ran right into Michael and threw him against the wall. His head smacked into the wall behind him, but he kept his grip on his gun.</p><p>He lifted his arm to fire it, but the other man quickly realised what he was doing and grabbed his arm. He twisted it until Michael was forced to let go and the gun clattered to the ground.</p><p>Michael shoved at the guy and he stumbled back a step. Michael used the space to throw a punch at the man’s face, but he barely even flinched as Michael’s fist hit his cheek. He was much bigger than Michael and as his own fist hit Michael’s face, Michael’s head was forced back, and he could see stars in his vision.</p><p>The man then grasped the front of Michael’s shirt and threw him to the floor. Michael crashed into the carpet and he tried to get up, but he was quickly sent back down by another blow to the head.</p><p>His arms were then twisted behind his back and he was lifted slightly as he was forced into a kneel.</p><p>His vision swam for a moment before it came back into focus.</p><p>There were other men in the room and Michael could hear noises coming from further in the apartment.</p><p>A second later, Gavin was forced into the room by two others.</p><p>He was struggling in their grip, but much like the man holding Michael, they were much bigger than him and his efforts did nothing.</p><p>That didn’t stop Michael from also trying to get out of the hold of the man keeping him down, but another twist of his arm prevented any further movement, or risk dislocating both his shoulders.</p><p>Gavin was thrown down on the floor in front of him, and one of the men who had been holding him kicked him in the side of the head and sent him face first into the ground.</p><p>“Leave him alone!” Michael yelled at the man, who just sent Michael a look before kicking Gavin again, this time in the stomach.</p><p>Michael tried to move forward, but the pain in his arms kept him in place.</p><p>“I don’t think you’re in a position to demand such things, Mogar.”</p><p>Michael’s eyes darted away from Gavin, who was being forced onto his knees as well, to one of the other people in the room.</p><p>The man, who was apparently in charge here, was standing to the side of them and was looking down at Michael with a glimmer in his eye.</p><p>“Or should I say <em>Michael Jones</em>.”</p><p>Michael’s stomach plummeted and he was filled with dread.</p><p>Michael didn’t recognise this man, but apparently this man knew who he was. <em>Exactly</em> who he was. If he knew more than he should, then that could mean that he also knew-</p><p>“You took something from me,” the man continued. “Something that I loved.”</p><p>Michael’s heart stopped as he realised where this was going. He struggled some more.</p><p>“So, I’m going to take something that you love.”</p><p>The man walked over to Gavin, who was watching the man fearfully. He bent down and caressed a hand against Gavin’s cheek, and Michael felt a fire within him.</p><p>“You seem very fond of this one. Gavin, isn’t it?”</p><p>“Don’t touch him!” Michael yelled at him, but the smile that crept onto the man’s face made Michael realise that he should have kept his mouth shut.</p><p>“Oh, you really do love him.” The man grabbed one of Gavin’s arms out of the grip of the men holding him and held it high above Gavin’s head. “That’ll make breaking him all the better.”</p><p>Abruptly, the man clutched Gavin’s hand and bent his fingers back.</p><p>There was a sickening snap, but all Michael could hear was the sound of Gavin crying out in pain.</p><p>“Gavin!” Michael called out to him, and leant forward as far as he could, which was barely an inch.</p><p>Gavin curled himself around his broken hand after the man had dropped it from his grasp, and his eyes were clenched shut.</p><p>“Gavin…” Michael’s voice was quiet as he felt tears start to brim in his eyes. This was all his nightmares coming true.</p><p>Gavin’s eyes opened slightly, and he looked up so his gaze caught Michael’s. He looked terrified and there were tears starting to drop down onto his cheeks as well.</p><p>“I hope you’ve said your goodbyes already, because this’ll be the last you see of each other,” the other man spoke, but Michael’s eyes never left Gavin.</p><p>“Michael…” Gavin’s voice was barely there, but Michael could hear the waver in his voice as he tried to keep the tears at bay. Michael’s heart shattered at the pain and fear he knew he was putting him through.</p><p>The man moved in front of Michael and pulled out his gun.</p><p>“I won’t kill you. Instead, you will live with the knowledge that you allowed him to suffer and die, and it was all your fault. Don’t worry, though, I’ll make sure it’s a painful death.”</p><p>Michael tried his hardest to twist out of the burly man’s grip on him, not even caring anymore about whether he hurt himself if it meant he could save Gavin.</p><p>The man in front of him blocked Michael’s view of Gavin, and so Michael had to twist his head around to see Gavin past him.</p><p>“Gavin, listen to me. I’m going to get you out of this, just hold on and I’ll-”</p><p>Any word he wanted to say next was cut off by the gun that was swung into his temple, and then everything went black.</p><p> </p><p>When Michael woke up next, it was quiet and there was now light shining into the apartment as the sun began to rise.</p><p>Michael pushed himself off the ground and looked around. There was no one else in the apartment except for him, and no sign of where anyone had gone.</p><p>That didn’t stop Michael from getting into action.</p><p>He stood up and staggered slightly as a dizziness washed over him. He lifted a hand to his temple and found that he was bleeding, but there wasn’t anything he could do about that right now. Any moment he wasted here was another moment that they could be hurting Gavin.</p><p>If Gavin was still alive.</p><p>He hadn’t realised who that man was at first, but he had soon remembered where he knew Michael from.</p><p>Several years ago, there had been a crew that had a highly corrupt leader at the head of it all. Michael had been forced to take him down or he would have killed Michael and the rest of the Fakes along with him.</p><p>He was a bad person who had cost many people their lives, civilians included, and he had to be taken down. Michael hadn’t regretted it then, but he was starting to now.</p><p>He had known that the leader had been very close to his right-hand man, who Michael also knew to be an awful man, but not nearly as bad as his boss. At the time, Michael had never considered him coming back for revenge, otherwise he would have taken that scumbag down at the same time he killed the other man.</p><p>He thought he had been nice sparing his life, but now he was bathing in the delight of taking him down as well.</p><p>Michael still remembered where the crew’s last base was, so he desperately hoped that they were dumb enough for it to still be in the same place.</p><p>He threw on some clothes, made sure he had more than enough guns and ammo to take down that whole crew, and then he was sprinting out the door without bothering to close it behind him.</p><p> </p><p>The base was a warehouse on the outskirts of the city. Michael rolled up in his car and watched it from across the street.</p><p>From where he was, he could see someone standing outside a door at the front of the warehouse, and they were holding a gun, which confirmed Michael’s suspicions.</p><p>In the darkness of his car, Michael smiled.</p><p>Michael threw open the car door and sprinted over to the building.</p><p>The person at the door was dead before they even saw him coming. Michael stepped over their body and kicked the door down without even slowing down, and then entered the base.</p><p>Michael swept through the building swiftly and quickly. Everyone he came across, he shot down. No one was left standing as he continued his hunt for Gavin.</p><p>There was one last room he hadn’t checked, and knew that if Gavin were still alive, he would be in there.</p><p>He had to be in there.</p><p>The door flew open as he stepped into the room. It was a large and spacious, but there were only a couple of people in the room.</p><p>That man, and Gavin.</p><p>The man was standing over Gavin, who was slumped over in a chair and not moving. The man spun around as soon as he heard Michael enter the room, and he only had time to widen his eyes in shock before Michael filled him with a round of bullets.</p><p>Michael ran over to Gavin’s side, who still had yet to move.</p><p>“Gavin?” Michael went to place a hand on Gavin’s shoulder, but then he hesitated as he took in the sight of him.</p><p>Every inch of Gavin’s skin that Michael could see was bruised and bloody. He was still in his t-shirt and shorts that he’d slept in, and those were covered in blood as well.</p><p>Michael couldn’t tell where he was injured or even what injuries he had, and he was afraid to touch him and make him worse. But he had to get him out of here, and fast.</p><p>Michael started to untie Gavin’s wrists from where they were bound to the chair with rope. The skin underneath was rubbed raw from where Gavin had clearly tried to struggle free, and Michael had to swallow the lump in his throat.</p><p>There was a groan from next to him as Gavin stirred. Michael’s head snapped up to him and found that his eyes were slowly blinking open.</p><p>“Gav?”</p><p>“Michael, wha-”</p><p>“Shh,” Michael gently hushed, and moved to brush a stray hair out of his eyes. “I told you I’d come, right? I’m going to get you out of here now.”</p><p>Gavin nodded slightly, but then winced. Michael stood up and then bent down to lift Gavin out of the chair. Gavin curled into Michael’s chest and Michael made sure his head was tucked into his shoulder.</p><p>On their way out, they were going to go past all the bloody destruction that Michael had left in his wake. Gavin hadn’t really seen this side of him, not until now, and Michael didn’t want him to see just what Michael did to people who got on the wrong side of him.</p><p>Michael took Gavin back to his car, and then drove him to the only place he could.</p><p> </p><p>Michael knocked on the door with his foot as his hands were occupied with carrying Gavin. Gavin was asleep again, and although that concerned Michael for a multitude of reasons, he was at least having a break from the pain.</p><p>Michael only had to wait there for a few moments before the door opened and Geoff was standing in front of him.</p><p>“Michael! What happened?” Geoff asked in shock as he took in the sight of him, but then his eyes moved down to Gavin. “Who is- never mind, come in.”</p><p>Geoff stepped aside and Michael was thankful he wasn’t going to hound him with questions right now. Michael smiled gratefully at him, and then carried Gavin into the penthouse.</p><p> </p><p>Michael could just feel himself start to fall asleep in his chair, when he heard a noise come from the bed next to him. He immediately woke up and was turning to the person in the bed.</p><p>Gavin’s brow was creased as he slowly woke up. His eyes blinked sluggishly and once they were open, his gaze moved around the room until it settled on Michael.</p><p>“Michael? Where are we?” Gavin’s voice was croaky and confused as he continued to look around the room.</p><p>“We’re at the base. Where I work,” Michael explained slowly so Gavin understood.</p><p>“The penthouse?” Michael had forgotten that he’d told Gavin the odd choice of base that Geoff had decided on, although he shouldn’t have been surprised that Gavin remembered. “Why?”</p><p>Michael reached over and picked up his hand, and started to rub soothing circles into it.</p><p>“I think we should stay here for a while. I can introduce you to the crew and we’ll get all our stuff from our apartment, but it’ll be safer for us, for you, to be here. At least for a little while.”</p><p>Michael paused as he allowed for that to settle in. Gavin seemed thoughtful for a moment and Michael was preparing himself for Gavin to protest, but after a long moment, Gavin nodded.</p><p>“Alright.”</p><p>“Really?” Michael sat up in surprise. “You’re okay with that?”</p><p>“Sure,” Gavin shrugged. “As long as I’m with you, I don’t care where we are.”</p><p>Michael slumped in relief at that and grasped Gavin’s hand firmer.</p><p>“Thank you.” Michael knew he could rest a little easier with the knowledge that he had the rest of the crew around to protect them as well.</p><p>Gavin settled back into the bed, and then looked down at himself.</p><p>“Are these your clothes?” He raised an eyebrow at Michael as he took in what he was wearing.</p><p>“Oh, yeah,” Michael laughed slightly. “I keep some spares here in case I have to stay overnight. I thought you’d like them.”</p><p>“I do,” Gavin smiled contently and then closed his eyes. Michael thought he would go back to sleep, but then his eyes opened again.</p><p>“Can you come here?” Gavin seemed shy to say it, but Michael was up immediately at the words.</p><p>“Of course.”</p><p>Michael climbed onto the other side of the bed and laid down next to him. Gavin curled into his side and rested his head on Michael’s chest.</p><p>Michael was worried that he was going to hurt Gavin, but as he wrapped his arms protectively around Gavin, his boyfriend just snugged in closer.</p><p>He felt Gavin fall asleep not long later, but Michael stayed awake until he knew that he truly was safe in his arms, and that no one was going to get to them from here.</p>
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